President Rules out CUG’s Transformation into Opposition

(Tbilisi, April 1, Civil Georgia) – President Shevardnadze believes that Citizens’ Union of Georgia [CUG] party will not go into opposition.

In the nearest future the party assembly will be held and “I don’t think CUG members will declare, that the party is in opposition,” Eduard Shevardnadze said in his traditional Monday radio broadcast on April 1.

Reformers’ faction of the CUG, led by former Parliamentary Chairman Zurab Zhvania, intends to take over the party.

Zurab Zhvania met President on March 29 to discuss the situation in the party. After the meeting Zhvania stated that he can not be in the party where persons like Levan Mamaladze, governor of Kvemo Kartli region, are.

Mamaladze is a pro-Presidential faction’s leader within the CUG, which opposes Zhvania’s team.

It is anticipated that CUG assembly will be held in late spring, 2002.

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